Month: October 2017

Bloodworld, by Laurence M. Janifer
Lancer Books, 1968
Originally published as You Sane Men in 1965
Price I paid, 75¢

What is a Remand House? Who are the Bound Men and Bound Women? What makes them different from the Lords and Ladies―and why are they the eternal slaves of pain?

They are human beings. But their world―their weirdly logical but not-sane world―is isolated in time and space, and totally insulated from humanity as we know it. It is a world where suffering and torture are essential to the maintenance of civilization.

Except for one man…

But Bloodworld can not be described in a few brief words. To understand it, you must read this unique book from its first searing words to its violent and all-important last page. It is a science-fiction novel with a difference. And it will shock you as only a vital, living thing can shock.

I don’t have a review for you folks today because I was in Nashville all day yesterday (Saturday = reading day) seeing a live show of My Brother, My Brother, and Me. It was 100% fantastic and amazing and I love those good McElroy brothers and their hilarious goofs.

I know that if I’d tried I probably could have gotten a book read in time. I had all week. Plus the car ride to Nashville was three hours each way. Plenty of time to knock out a paperback. I’d even picked one out and started it. I think you’re going to like it. The cover has a naked dude with a whip and it looks like he’s going to hit a planet with it.

But yeah, I didn’t read it all and so instead of a review I’m going to give you a short essay about something I’ve been thinking about. Don’t worry, it’s generally relevant. I’m not going to just go off on my favorite Halloween candy or something.

Spawned in a dangerous 21st-century experiment, they were brought into a world where educated apes did manual labor and the government encouraged suicide as a method of population control.

Their existence as clones was unknown to anyone―even to each other―known only to their creator.

But then came the strange, haunting visions, the peculiar psychic sensations that drew them closer and closer together―revealing once and for all the mysterious secret they shared that would change the world!

Capt. Alex and his team had been computer-selected to explore the sun-twin planet Cygni C. They found there a race of men who wiled away their lives playing childish games, making love, and vegetating in the deep, luxuriant jungles. Alex’s friends quickly succumbed to the planet’s many delights. Only he felt duty-bound to return to earth.

The varied answers to that question have proved to be fertile ground for some of the greatest science fiction imaginations. But perhaps we shouldn’t look too closely into the future of cybernetics. It may be that the survival capacity of the thinking machine is greater than that of its maker…